Interview
By coincidence, I happen to have met this month's featured guest at the same mountaintop party where I met our last.
From Santa Barbara, Larry Dance Jr., aka Eric Anderson, is well known for his sweet and smooth house selections. As one half of Le Funk Sounds, Eric is busy providing party services on a full time basis. However, as he demonstrated with his 9-hour, open-air pop-up at Santa Barbara's Studio Sound room last August, Eric has got the people in mind where ever he's setting them up to party.
Having come to respect Eric as a selector and member of his community over the last several years, it's a pleasure to bring him through the Portal.
Through LeFunk Sounds, you've found a way to sustain yourself through music and DJing over the last few years. What's the process been like getting to this point?
In a lot of ways it really just fell into my lap. About 10 years ago, I was mainly on the side of organizing parties and renegades, but I wasn't involved on the djing side of things. I just loved to dance and that was what really drew me to electronic music in the beginning, my love to dance. At one of those renegades in the early morning, as the sun rose, and only a few were left on the dancefloor, my buddy convinced me to mess around on the decks with him. Next thing you know I got a small DJ controller and was hooked. My love to dance slowly turned into a love to make people dance...About a year or two into DJing my DJ partner, Corey and I were asked to open for Chromeo and it was at this event that 'LeFunk Sounds' was born. After our opening set, we were approached by a couple asking to DJ their wedding. We told them we'd never done one, but we'd be happy to have them be our first.
At this point, I realized that maybe I could finally do something that I love to do as my profession. From here on I focused on creating a legitimate business. I built a website, started marketing, created an LLC and so on.
What are the differences, if any for you, when you're doing music for work vs. engaging with music for yourself or in a party setting?
Firstly I’ll tell you about what I try to embody within both settings, and that is to HAVE FUN. This is vital in both settings. When I’m doing music for work, if I’m not enjoying myself, neither will the crowd. The same goes for party settings or playing music for myself (I mean why would I engage in music with myself if it wasn’t fun?!)
The biggest difference would be playing music for the crowd/client vs. for myself. When I’m doing music for work I think about the client first, and my likes for the music I’m playing second. I still hold space for the music that I love in my work though. And I try to make that apparent with the chosen name of my business, LeFunk Sounds (we love disco and funk). But at the end of the day, our clients are hiring us to play the music that they love, not the music that we love.
On the other hand, when I’m playing music in a party setting I’m only playing music that I love. Yet at the same time, I’ve learned through playing as LeFunk Sounds how important reading the crowd is. I guess that may have an influence on why I play a lot of different types of electronic music in my sets. I like to switch it up when the dancefloor gets stagnate.
At the beginning of August, you transformed the alleyway outside of Studio Soundroom into all day dance affair. I'm curious to hear your side of the story, and what inspired the event.
Having attended Studio Soundroom many a night I got this vision to turn the narrow alleyway right outside their front door into a mini rave. I’ve always wanted to go to this nightclub (well former nightclub) called Printworks in London, but never got the chance to go. Along with that, the vibes I’ve experienced at outdoor daytime parties in Los Angeles and New York bring out this special quality on the dance floor that you don’t really get in those dark underground warehouses. I pitched this idea to the owner of Studio Soundroom, Ryder, and banked on the fact we could get away with a loud outdoor system during Santa Barbara’s Fiestas Weekend. Turned out we could, and these two concepts ended up combining perfectly into one hell of a 9-hour party.
Now Studio Soundroom is right near the Funk Zone, where developers have come in over recent years, proposing changes that many locals have spoken out against. What do you think the affects of things like this are on the community in Santa Barbara?
I’ve lived in Santa Barbara my whole life and I’ve seen this time and time again. Santa Barbara is a highly sought after place. Rent increases every year to rates that many businesses just can’t handle. I’ve seen businesses come and go, constantly. At this point, I don’t really know what the affects of things like this are on the community in Santa Barbara, because it has been a part of my life forever. I’ve honestly just accepted that things may not be the same as they were 5 to 10 years ago. I wish I could tell you differently, but it’s just the cost of living in a place where everyone wants to live.